Marcia Johnson, Esq. is the chief counsel for LWV. She leads the organization’s advocacy and litigation teams, overseeing the strategic direction of their program, government affairs, and litigation efforts.
Marcia began her career as a voting rights lawyer when she joined the Lawyers’ Committee in 2004 as part of the team organizing the first election protection program during a presidential election. Since then, Marcia has worked with national and state partners to educate voters about their voting rights, build programs to provide real time help so that voters can cast ballots that will be counted, advocate for voting rights legislation, and provide support to litigation that challenges suppressive laws or practices.
In 2005, she organized the first of two national commissions that researched and documented the record of discrimination in voting. This research was part of the record used by Congress to support the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006. In 2014, the second national commission updated the research of voting discrimination to support the call for legislation to restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. That advocacy continues. Additionally, she served on and supported the litigation team defending the first challenge to the constitutionality of the 2006 reauthorization of Voting Rights Act.
Marcia is a national speaker on voting rights. She has testified before Congress and has appeared in national media discussing voting rights challenges and solutions. She and her daughter Justina are featured in the international documentary "Democracy Maybe," a series exploring the challenges faced by democracies across the globe.
Marcia received her Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law and her Bachelor of Science in Linguistics from Georgetown University.